Two beach volleyball courts were built in the largest Polish business center Olivia Centre. After the passion development clubs that have been developed for years, the time has come to create our own sports infrastructure. The new pitches have already started, and their popularity confirms that there is a demand for such infrastructure in business facilities.
I will not exaggerate if I say that Olivia is a unique place – says Maciej Olszewski, Director of the Communication Department of Olivia Centre. This is where the residents’ work, education and non-professional passions, including sports ones, intertwine and complement each other. A few years ago, in the Gdańsk Shipyard and in cooperation with our neighbour, we launched a beach volleyball court, which was a novelty if we think about business centres. In June 2025, we commissioned two additional, full-size pitches for employees already on the premises of Olivia Centre. And this is an absolute exception. The pitches are free of charge and, what makes them even more special, you can book them yourself. Planning games is therefore as easy as meetings in conference rooms. Effect? Employees use the pitches regularly, company and inter-company teams organize matches and mini-tournaments themselves; we also have already completed this year’s first Olivia Centre Beach Volleyball Tournament. We have almost 380 bookings in our database so far! Teams from Just Join IT, Ferchau, Griddynamics, Speeron, Graphcore, Bayer, Amazon, PwC, thyssenkrupp, Fujifilm, Speednet and Enspirion play here. Before the summer holidays, the pitches were eagerly used, especially in the morning, by students of neighbouring schools. Interestingly, in May they were mainly high school graduates, for whom volleyball was, I think, a great way to relieve stress. Sport is part of our broader wellbeing strategy, in which we support the activities of residents and care for their well-being and health. Beach volleyball has a low entry threshold, quickly and permanently connects people, it is outdoor movement, building good habits and team integration. Only advantages.
The pitches are full-size playing fields with a sand surface, located next to the newest building of Olivia Prime B. They are surrounded by flower meadows, which have been an additional attraction of the centre since the beginning of the season. Both pitches are in demand all day, 7 days a week. An online booking system is very helpful in their functioning. This makes these pitches more likely to be used by groups of players than pitches right on the seashore. Thanks to this, you can be sure that the pitch will be free and available immediately to play.
The system also helps in team building and mutual competition. In this way, it is easy to find partners to play and learn and set up a schedule of meetings and games between regular teams. Therefore, pitches play an important role in the integration of employees, creating the Olivia community – a group of diverse people who build a network of contacts also outside their organizations.
It is worth noting that in initiatives promoting physical activity, we are eager to use the potential of academic partnerships,” emphasizes Maciej Olszewski. We cooperate, among m.in, with the University of Gdańsk and the Gdańsk University of Technology, thanks to which employees from Olivia have access to high-quality infrastructure and good trainers.
In Olivia Centre, a project of building ambassador clubs has been developed for years – clubs for the development of employees’ passions, which are created on the basis of numerous interests and passions: from group sports, such as football, volleyball or basketball, to running together, mountain biking on the hills of the Tri-City Landscape Park, through the Olivia Yacht Club, a photography club, to the activity of the Olivia Centre Choir, bringing together 40 people from various companies from Olivia.
One of the values that we provide to our residents is a widely developed social and sports program – says Bogusław Wieczorek, the representative of the management board of Olivia Centre. Passion development clubs, which include sports projects, are very popular and are often a canvas for building a strong community, focused not only on business, but also on recreation and personal development. The research that we have been conducting for years confirms the high level of interest in such initiatives on the part of employees, and is appreciated by employers due to the importance of this project in the process of team integration, employee motivation and additional benefits associated with their residency in Olivia.
